Late last week, an unidentified man threw a 20-pound rock through the window of an Iraqi restaurant in Lowell, New Hampshire. The owners, Leyla Al-Zubayd and Ahmed Al-Zubaidi—both American citizens—were unsettled by the apparent hate crime.

Turns out they had little to fear. The following week, more than 100 veterans of the Iraq war and their friends and familes staged an "Eat-In," filling the seats of the restaurant. The mood was celebratory, and the gesture of goodwill made national news. One can only assume the coward who threw that rock heard about it.